Later we went to see “Honey I Shrunk the Audience,” which is a 3-D show that includes all sorts of tactile and smell effects during the movie. Sofiie got scared at quite a few parts, but most of the kids really enjoyed it and if nothing else, it was great to get off our feet for a while. My feet were screaming at me! Wendy came prepared with a bag of Advil, so we both popped several over the course of the day to keep ourselves upright. I don’t think I could have made it otherwise!

Later that afternoon and into the evening, we got Fast Passes for Rides we’d missed the day before and wanted to redo. We got Passes for Indiana Jones and then went to see the requisite Tiki Room show, ride on the Jungle Cruise, and eat a late lunch. When it was time for Indiana Jones, Wendy and I took most of the kids who were old enough to go and left the younger ones (and my waffling Joshua) with the men. We had the BEST time! Wendy and I sat in the front of our jeep and laughed ourselves silly through the whole ride. I’d periodically hear Jonah shriek, ”this ride is AWESOME!” from behind, and that made me laugh even harder. It was such a fun ride and I wish we would have gone on it yesterday too. After our turn, we sent Joshua, the men and a couple of the other kids who wanted to go again to use our remaining Fast Passes. Then I got the brilliant idea that since we had some time to kill, Wendy and I could take the younger kids on Pirates of the Caribbean again since it was just around the corner. This turned out to be a huge mistake! We got stuck on the ride and were down there for close to an hour, I think. Two of our kids fell asleep and poor Claire needed to go to the bathroom the entire time. We first got stuck just as the pirates were singing, “Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me,” and it didn’t take long for that song to start wearing on everyone’s nerves.

After some time, the ride started up again and everyone clapped as we began to move forward in the water. Our joy was short-lived, however, as we got stuck in front of the jailed pirates (you know the ones – the men who are trying to lure the dog into surrendering the door key.) I’d been communicating with Curtis on the cell phone (who by this time was in line for the ride with Tim and the other kids) and had been told that the ride operators were advising a “five minute” delay. At this point, though, we realized the ride had been shut down and we had no idea how long we’d be down there. When we finally emerged, it was nearly time for the park to close and we didn’t get to go on any other rides. We were pretty annoyed and decided to nix any future Pirates visits.

We took our shuttle back to the hotel and the kids collapsed into bed. Tomorrow is our California Adventure day, so we definitely need a good night’s sleep!




This photo is from our unfortunate journey in Pirates of the Caribbean...